Anatomical tube clamps and especially clamps for blood vessels have been designed with the intent of achieving satisfactory occlusion of the vessel while preventing flow of the anatomical secretion within the tube, thus minimizing trauma or injury to facilitate surgical repair. Although it is most desirable to avoid injury to the walls of any anatomical tube such as bowels, ureters, etc, it is especially important when occluding blood vessels which nourish vital life support structures during surgery and microsurgery. Such small vessels which may have diameters as small as about one millimeter have vessel walls which are quite fragile and are easily susceptible to injury especially where exposed to sharp or irregular surfaces or edges. In many cases, where clamps or clips are secured on a vessel, even slight movement of the device may stretch, scrape, or abrade the vessel which, even though not enough to cause rupturing, will damage the vessel wall to such an extent that clotting of the vessel or later deterioration may occur. Other known clamps occlude by squeezing the vessel between opposing and converging surfaces which may result in a pinching or a crushing injury directly to the vessel wall.
In dealing with the surgically treatable diseases of the brain or heart for example, the blood supply to critical anatomical areas is often supplied by blood vessels with diameters in the range of one millimeter. Blood vessel walls of all sizes are extremely fragile and traumatic injury to those structures by any present occlusive device, will often lead to fragmentation of the smooth anatomical cell layers of the wall with resulting spontaneous blood clotting, (thrombosis) and ultimate death of the structure nourished by the vessel. The histological damage leading to cell destruction and deterioration in any anatomical tube which is clamped by present surgical devices may occur due to exposure to sharp or irregular occluding surfaces, stretching of the tube beyond viability, a direct squeezing of the tissue by opposing surfaces (pinching), or an interruption of the microscopic vessels carrying blood to the wall of the anatomical tube itself which are necessary for the nutrition and viability of cell layers comprising the wall of the anatomical tube.